How many plants do I need to control Nitrates ?

Just like the title says "How many plants do I need to control Nitrates ?"

I have a 29 gallon tank and every week my nitrates go from about 10 to at least 20... I would like to slow this process down as much as I can and I am thinking that plants would be the best way to do it. So I am wondering how many I will need.. Ballpark guesstimates are welcome as well.. ;D

Thanks!!

 

hehe, that's kinda hard to just guess at. any plants will help, but fast growing stems will help the most.

someone on ebay that I know has good plants is

there's lots of plants on ebay, or your lfs might have some that you like.

 

Fast growing plants will take the Nitrates down faster. Things like wisteria, hornwort, anacharis to name a few. As for how many.. the more the better
Cccarol

 

I feel like my tank has become a Nitrate farm.. LOL!!

So which of those plants would be considered low light... Or non light specific ?

Thanks!

 

I have grown all those in low light and medium light successfully.
Carol

 

Thanks!!!

If my home made C02 deal works well I will be all over more plants!! ;D

 

I have to tell you real plants are habit forming Its MPS multiple Plant Syndrome. We have all kinds of syndromes around here. MPS, MTS .....
carol

 

hehe, gotta agree with that one.

so.....where can I fit in another tank.......hmmm......how about a few more plants

 

LOL griffin, wherever there is another tank can be more plants
Carol
MFS-More Fish Syndrome ...

 

mps too

 

Got 4 more plants yesterday.... Haven't decided on a way to arrange them yet so they are just hanging out where I stuck them for now...

Also added an old powerhead I had laying around and hooked up my DIY C02 deal to it.. Seems to work pretty good..

And now I am on to making a light fixture for my tank for less than 20 bucks that will double it's output!! (that's only if everything goes to plan.. LOL!! ) Which so far it hasn't... Turns out cheap parts are cheap and I guess don't work either!! LOL!! But I am still trying to make it happen.. Also found out that the can of Krylon I was eye balling will still keep me under 20 bucks!! Yippie!!



MTS -- MFS -- MPS -- and the newbie MMF ;D

 

care to elaborate? Like maybe show some plans or describe what you do? I'd love to have more wpg, but I don't have the $100+ for the light I want.

 

Well I am using a few parts easily obtained...

1) The All Glass Deluxe hood that came with my tank
2) One 24 inch Shop Light fixture - (Dual Tube)

What I am going to do is remove the fixture from my all glass hood. Then take the needed parts from the shop light fixture and fit the lights into the hood. The ballast will have to mount on top of the hood. I have already fit all the parts once but the ballast in my 24 inch shop light was no good so I need to get another one at the store... Basically return and exchange type of deal...

Anyway that's the idea... I will then get 40 watts of T8 lighting out of my hood. Which should translate into 60 watts using the "old T12 scale" that most refer to when talking about WPG. So that would put my tank in the moderate light range.

I also plan on getting some reflective mylar for the hood to reflect the un-used light back into the tank which will also help... I will be taking pictures as I go this next time so you can all see the frankenstien hood light I am building... LOL!!

 

all I can say to reworking your own lights into a plastic canopy even if only with floresant lights is risky becareful balasts can get hot enough to melt and cause fires. take my word for it you don't always need to buy that $100 or $300 dollar light . a simple desk lamp can work wonders with the correct wattage and placement take a look at my tank labeled planted aquaria with a twist .you'll find it in fish photo's there you'll see a couple oridinary desk lamps no one beleives work so well .don't let my name fool you I'm a hobbiest not a store but I'm thinking to take this to the next level

 

Well I would have done more but I found out that a ballast for dual T8 lights is difficult to find. So for now I have scraped the project and bought a dual bulb fluorescent fixture that has worked out very well thus far. It was 55 dollars from DFS and has exceeded my expectations...

I will revisit this project once I find a suitable ballast that will work and not overheat the plastics like you have pointed out. I am familiar with electronics and ballasts but I had no idea that finding a ballast to run dual T8's would be so hard. Even the commercial units seem to use dual ballasts which is something I had not thought about doing until recently.

Anyway for now it has been put off until I can find suitable equipment at a decent price.